


don't let the pictures leave your phone

by thepriestthinksitsthedevil (stubliminalmessaging)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Awkward Flirting, Background Relationships, Hook-Up, M/M, One Night Stands, specifically larry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 18:39:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17945012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stubliminalmessaging/pseuds/thepriestthinksitsthedevil
Summary: Liam has never been someone to go out to clubs and pick up boys for the night, but the one time he does it comes back to haunt him weeks later. In the best possible way, it turns out.





	don't let the pictures leave your phone

**Author's Note:**

> this fic was written from the prompt "office"
> 
> thanks to caroline thedaggerrose for the beta!!! and to the rest of the emo larries gc for being very encouraging while i've been writing :>

Liam Payne wasn’t a partier. He didn’t tend to go out on weekends or even in the summer when he was on holiday. He prefered quiet nights in watching movies or playing video games with his friends.

 

His friends were the reason he’d gone out at all. He generally passed on nights when his core friend group went out, but he knew weeks in advance that he would be going out on Christmas eve because Louis was a drama queen who would have disowned him if Liam hadn’t gone out with him and the rest of their friends on his birthday. Usually, he was able to get out of going out due to family obligations, but this year his parents had gone on vacation and his sisters and him had agreed to meet up and do their family Christmas after their parents returned. As soon as Louis found out that Liam wasn’t busy Christmas eve, Liam was done for.

 

That was how he found himself in a too-dark club with too-loud music and a rapidly-warming beer in his hand, condensation dripping onto his shirt as he tried to force himself to have a good time.

 

Ten minutes passed and the only changes that occurred were that he finished his beer and got another one and Louis disappeared into the crowded dancefloor, probably flirting with guys until he found his prince charming for the night. A dance remix of All I Want for Christmas is You began and the crowd erupted in cheering, enamored by Mariah’s dramatic vocals as gays tended to be.

 

Liam was gay, but he wasn’t a Party Gay, so gay clubs weren’t really his scene. He’d much rather meet a guy organically, like maybe on the tube or at the gym, and then shyly ask him out for coffee or dinner. He was more the boyfriend type than the one night stand type, and clubs weren’t the greatest place to try and make a real connection. But it was Louis’ birthday, and hot, dark, sweaty gay clubs  _ were _ his scene.

 

Leaning against the bar, Liam sighed and took a sip of his beer. He supposed he just had to stick around long enough for Louis to find his evening’s conquest, and then he could go home. He’d been bouncing between different men since they’d arrived, so Liam knew it would be a bit yet. He finished his drink and then headed for the door, knowing that going out for a smoke and scrolling through his instragram would kill some time. Maybe by the time he got back, Louis would be ready to go home with some boy.

 

Liam got his coat and went outside and after a quick pat down of his pockets he realized that he had left his smokes in his other jacket. Defeated and bored, he turned to go back inside, but a stranger stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Liam looked at him, pausing to appreciate his large dark eyes and the scruffy cut of his jaw.

 

“Yes?” he asked when the stranger didn’t immediately speak. He seemed effortlessly cool, comfortable in just a leather jacket and jeans despite the bitter chill in the air. The stranger tapped out a cigarette for himself and then held the packet out to Liam.

 

“Are you sure?” Liam asked, and the stranger nodded and shook the pack, tugging a cigarette out of the pack and watching as the man lit up. His cheeks hollowed and his lashes fluttered and Liam might have a bit of a crush. After five seconds. Maybe the lads were right and he did need to get out more.

 

“Thanks,” Liam said when the man lent him a lighter. He lit up and smiled at this stranger. “I’m Liam.”

 

“Zayn,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”

 

Liam smiled at Zayn, who became occupied with his phone and silence fell between them. Liam fidgeted with his phone and Zayn smoked and watched him wordlessly. Liam opened instagram and scrolled through it like he’d planned but he couldn’t shake the sensation of those dark eyes watching him. Zayn’s attention was heavy and it made Liam’s skin feel itchy, but he couldn’t decide if it was in a good way or a bad one. Zayn was so gorgeous, appealing without having to say a word, and Liam was so shy most of the time. He thought about talking, striking up a conversation with this Adonis, but he kept second and third and fourth guessing himself. Zayn just saw that he was floundering and had offered him a kindness - not an opening for a conversation. Still, standing here not saying anything while Zayn stared at him (even if Liam  _ wasn’t looking _ and  _ couldn’t see _ that Zayn was staring at him, the weight of his stare has his hair standing on end) was going to drive him insane, so he bit the bullet and spoke up.

 

“Are you here wi-”

 

“Do you wanna go somewhere else?”

 

Liam faltered as soon as Zayn started talking, and the other man spoke quieter than Liam himself yet he still let Liam talk over his own words. Was that… a proposition?

 

Liam coughed. “Pardon?”

 

Zayn took a drag of his smoke, cheeks hollowed and eyelashes fluttering as he blinked slowly. “Did  _ you _ come here with someone?”

 

“Uh, yeah,” Liam replied. “It’s my mate’s birthday. He usually has family stuff but since he doesn’t this year, he decided that he has to pull and apparently I had to be present for that.”

 

“Do you not like pulling?” Zayn asked, twitch of a smile hidden behind a plume of smoke that drifted between his lips. Liam suddenly remembered the cigarette burning down between his fingers and took a drag while he contemplated how to answer.

 

“Don’t do it often,” he eventually replied, the words chasing smoke out of his mouth. “Wouldn’t say no to doing it more.” He let his words sit, anxious for how Zayn was going to respond to them. He was getting even colder as the seconds ticked by, his sweaty clammy skin cooling in the chill of the night.

 

“Would you say no to doing it tonight?” Zayn asked. He was almost done with his cigarette and in a daring moment of either courage or madness, Liam tossed his smoke, stubbed it out with his shoe, and plucked Zayn’s from between his lips. He hoped he didn’t imagine the tiny gasp that Zayn let out when Liam took a drag of his own cigarette, eyes glued to Liam’s mouth.

 

“Shall we go then?” he asked, breathing the smoke out slowly and tossing the half-smoked cigarette to the ground when Zayn strutted past him, drawn in by the other man’s cocky smirk and hot on his heels.

 

-

 

Wild nights of sex weren’t something that Liam Payne did often, and when he did he never saw those men again, and that was how he preferred it. He figured that would be the outcome of his night with Zayn, and when his next two weeks past like they would normally, it looked like that was the way it was going to go. The only change was the constantly present new addition to their group - Harry, who Louis had picked up the night of his birthday. He’d been dressed in a slutty Mrs. Clause costume and Louis had brought him home and then he’d never truly left. He was fun and cared very deeply for Louis even though they’d only been seeing each other for a short time, and Liam thought he was a great addition to their little group.

 

Seeing Louis with a boyfriend (which never happened) and knowing how they’d met, Liam couldn’t help but think of Zayn. Liam had woken up the morning after they’d met alone with nothing to remember Zayn by except the scent of his cologne that clung to Liam’s sheets for days after their encounter. No note with his number, not even the artful red bandana he’d been wearing when Liam first saw him. Liam might have thought he’d dreamt Zayn up if he wasn’t feeling satisfied and sore in all the right places. It was like he and Louis had switched places - he got the one night stand and Louis got the adorable boyfriend that Liam usually had. And that just wasn’t  _ fair _ .

 

So one can imagine Liam’s surprise when he  _ did _ see Zayn again. At his work. Getting introduced to him as his student teacher for the semester. His principal, Mrs. Delia Sanchez truly walked into Liam’s gym office to introduce to him a man whose dick he had sucked just a couple weeks prior and Liam had to pretend that he had not in fact sucked the dick and instead acted polite and civil. He smiled his best smile and shook Zayn’s hand (a hand which had been tangled in Liam’s hair while Zayn fucked him from behind) and lied and said it was a pleasure to meet him. Liam should take up acting, because he was  _ selling it _ .

 

Liam’s office off of the gymnasium seemed to be the final stop on the tour that Delia had planned for Zayn, so she left them together shortly after introducing them.

 

“It’s… nice to see you again,” Zayn said quietly. He was clearly much less cool and suave here than he was in the alley beside the club when they’d met. In a way, he was on Liam’s turf, but Liam still felt uncomfortable with the tension between them.

 

“I need to talk to Mrs. Sanchez,” was all Liam could conjure up, marching out of his office. He got halfway down the hall and turned a corner before he heard hasty footsteps behind him. He turned another corner and then ducked into the main office, and Delia was standing right inside, chatting with one of the office administrators working. She looked at Liam when she saw him walk into the room, clearly interpreting Liam’s stance as worried, or maybe that he meant business. Probably better than her knowing exactly how badly he was uncomfortable with what was happening.

 

“Liam? What seems to be-“

 

“Sorry to interrupt, but,” the door to the office opened, and Zayn was probably behind him. “Can I speak to you, please? In private.”

 

“Uhm, certainly.” She looked past Liam, probably eyeing Zayn where he stood behind Liam. “Did you want your student teacher to join us?”

 

“No thank you. This is a matter that needs to be handled discreetly,” he said tersely. Delia looked at Zayn for a moment longer before she nodded and turned to invited Liam into her office. Liam followed her, but he turned to look at Zayn and he felt a little smug when he saw how scared he looked, the expression unfamiliar on his stupid perfect face.

 

Delia offered him a glass of water after he sat down in the chair across from her desk, which Liam declined. She tried to make small talk with him, asking about his family and his students, but Liam tried to get to the point. Under normal circumstances, he would indulge in the pleasantries and make sure that he maintained a good rapport with this woman who was essentially his boss, but he needed to get this thing with Zayn sorted out.

 

“I’m sorry if it’s rude, but I can’t have Mr. Malik as my student teacher,” Liam told her.

 

Delia looked surprised. This social interaction and the statement he’d just made probably clashed with everything she thought she knew about Liam. He had a reputation among his colleagues and students as being rule-bound and strict at first but always polite and understanding in social situations. The athletic students loved him for how he pushed them as a coach and gym teacher, and the students taking gym as a mandatory course appreciated that he found other ways to assess them apart from their physical prowess.

 

“And why is that, Liam?” she asked, response delayed because she was clearly taken aback. “Did something happen since I introduced you?”

 

“Something happened  _ before _ , actually,” Liam told her after a moment’s reluctance. “We have…a history.”

 

“What kind of-” she froze, slack-jawed as realization hit her. “Oh.  _ Oh _ .”

 

“Yes. And I don’t think it would be appropriate for us to work so closely together.” Liam said, forcing it all out at once. He could see the curious cogs turning in Delia’s head, and he wasn’t (and never,  _ ever _ would be) prepared to answer questions about his sex life from his boss. “I would like for him to be Mr. Sheeran’s student teacher instead. I think English would suit him better.”

 

“...alright. If you’re sure, and if he agrees to it.” Delia said, clearly still bursting with questions but fully aware that she could ask  _ none _ of them without risking a lawsuit. Liam couldn’t blame her - he loved a bit of hot office gossip, but not so much when he was the subject of it.

 

“I’m confident he will,” Liam assured her as she set to work typing the email she was going to be sending to Zayn and Ed. Liam knew they would both agree - Ed loved having student teachers, and Zayn didn’t really have a choice unless he wanted to go tell his placement supervisor that they had to find him a new placement because he slept with the teacher he’d been assigned to.

 

Zayn was biting his nails in the hall outside the main office a few moments later when Delia dismissed him. Liam walked past him and Zayn scrambled after him, cool facade forgotten as he hurried to keep in step with Liam’s brisk strides.

 

“I’m sorry, Liam,” he said, finally falling into step with Liam as they rounded corner after corner on their way back to Liam’s office in the gym. “I didn’t mean to just leave.”

 

Liam snorted. “I’m sure you did, when you didn’t think you’d ever see me again,” he said. Truthfully, he was mostly over it. But he didn’t want to suggest anything more if he knew that Zayn really wasn’t into him. He would feel like a fool, but at least he would know for sure that he was the only one who felt anything, he could mourn what could have been for a few days, and then move on with his life.

 

Zayn at least looked guilty. He had such big, dark, soulful eyes that Liam nearly melted under their stare, full of regret. Or something. Liam had the feeling that Zayn had perhaps perfected Big Sad Eyes and that he was unconsciously falling victim to them. “I really am sorry. I only ever do one night stands and I figured it would be the same with you, but we got on right away and I did immediately regret taking off without leaving my number.”

 

Liam pursed his lips and shrugged, unlocking his office door. “Lucky you’re getting a second chance, then.”

 

Zayn’s mouth snapped shut on the next sentence he’d been ready with. He swallowed thickly, then tried again. “You mean I’m not getting fired?”

 

Liam shook his head, letting Zayn go ahead of him into his office. “I recommended that you get switched to Mr. Sheeran. He’s an English teacher.”

 

Zayn’s smile was slow in glowing. “That’s… perfect. I wanna be an English teacher. Gym sucks.”

 

“You’re lucky I like you,” Liam chuckled, fighting down his smile even as Zayn offered him his phone with a new contact form open.


End file.
